Chapter 2

2502

The C.S.S. Icarus.

I sat in the pilots chair of the Icarus; the Colonial fleets most advanced stealth recon ship, every system was designed to avoid detection, it could operate in atmosphere as well as deep space, it was also the smallest starship to be equipped with its own wormhole generator.

I activated the pilots chairs impact field, it generated an inertial dampening field around the chair keeping me in place as well as protecting me during space travel. I powered up the ships reactors, moving slowly out of the hanger bay of the destroyer C.S.S. Daedalus, my orders where to pilot the Icarus away from the fleet, activate a wormhole, once on the other side I would be able to open my orders. I knew that my mission at least took me to the outer colonies as they where the only locations the Icarus would require two worm hole jumps to get to.

As I left the fleet I checked with the ships limited A.I. Allowing it to begin the calculations for the first worm hole activation, ever since the war no ship was allowed to have an unrestricted A.I. Earth had used their A.I. To command some of their ships during the final days of the war, the Colonial Government thought it was far to dangerous to leave life and death decisions in the hands of machines. The A.I. Alerted me that it had finished the calculations for the first worm hole, it asked if there was anything else, I flipped the switch shutting the A.I. Off, I didn't want it active any longer than necessary.